


teach me (it was bound to happen anyways)

by melendairefantasies



Category: The Good Doctor (TV 2017)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Mostly Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:27:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27516820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melendairefantasies/pseuds/melendairefantasies
Summary: Five times Neil Melendez falls in love with Claire, one time he does something about it.
Relationships: Claire Browne/Neil Melendez
Comments: 13
Kudos: 39





	teach me (it was bound to happen anyways)

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: can you write melendaire based on Grey’s Anatomy “teach me” scene. 
> 
> This one is specially for a friend who requested this months ago and I couldn’t muster the courage to finish. I hope everyone is recovering from that very poorly-executed season premiere.

I.

_"You do know what the opposite of superior is, right?"_

Her pen exploded on a particularly shitty day for the both of them (mostly because he gave her case to Kalu, so they’re both miserable) and her fingers and hands wind up covered in blue ink.

"Don't touch me with those," he warned, using one hand on her back to keep her both far in front of him and directed toward the hospital bathroom before she could mess up anything in the resident's lounge. "Why didn't you do this at the nurse’s station?"

"I did. I told you it won't come off." Somehow, hands-free, she managed to turn around in his careful grasp, palms out flat, bringing them towards him and he ducked and swerved and she started laughing at his antics. "Seriously, it's ink. You will live."

"I like this shirt." He told her, vainly, and she only kept laughing, so he grabbed her by the shoulders again, turned her back around, and got her through the doorway. In the second it took him to shove her towards the woman’s bathroom, she managed to flick him in the arm, and he didn't even know how to describe the expression that works his way onto his face. "Are you five?"

She shrugged her shoulders, this shit-eating grin on her face as she said, completely seriously, "That's what you tell me."

Neil shook his head as he forcibly, yet lightly, shoved her through the door and led her towards the sinks. "You're incorrigible, you know." He said as he shoved her hands underneath the water.

"Oh, you don't even know what that means. Probably saw it in a movie somewhere," she muttered that last part, and he switched the water to colder with his free hand, taking pleasure in the little shriek she gave when he did.

II. 

_“You really are the most gifted surgeon I have ever worked with.”_

He smiled but offered no reverence. Claire's never on his cases, anymore. Strategically. First, it was because he wanted to ignore this...whatever it was, at the time merely an attraction, now it's so as not to draw attention.

He brushed up behind her during surgery one too many times, a little too close and a little too comfortable; Morgan started noticing, Lim started glaring, and he started backing off. He had to boot her off of his service.

Sometimes, he'd see her down the hall from him, her eyes catching his from a patient's room, and her lips will turn up at the corners, her eyes will glint with something like mischief, and he realized it's better for the patient if they kept on doing this dance of avoidance at work.

She had his attention, all of it, whether he wants her to or not. She had to stay off of his service.

III. 

_“Therapy will help, time will help…and there is one other thing that works for me.”_

As someone whose job it was to know the human body, the way it worked, the way it's built, sometimes it's easy to let your mind shift into that mode. The mode where you see things as nothing more than bone and muscle, pulse points and pressure points, and all that's in between.

He traced the line of her spine with his fingertips, her collarbone with his tongue, his lips. He kisses his way down her stomach, his thumbs pressing into her inner thighs, spreading her legs wide. Neil breathed against her and her hips buck when he did, on reflex. He buried himself in the detached feeling, hoping he could forget the way she looked in leggings. It made him chuckle, he was desperately trying to forget her as he was in between the legs of another woman, a second before he made better use of his tongue, flicking, curling, inside of her. It wasn’t Claire, but he imagined it was. 

There's a reason he has a reputation at the hospital, and there's a reason that it's perfected.

IV. 

_“You deserve to be happy.”_

It came out with fervency. _Does he mean it?_ She wanted to be happy, but she didn’t know how. He tried to imagine her future with Dash, but all Neil could see was his future with her. She wanted to be crazy, head-over-heels in love, but it wasn’t with him. 

Yes, Claire was more messed up than people at first assume. But she's also a dreamer, an optimist, someone who commits to a relationship and craves idiotic happiness. Neil's never really been any of those things. He stayed away from women like that. He looks for stability, security, and attainability. At least he did when his brain was having any say in the actions of his body. After Audrey, his string of attachments were as loosely based as the men Claire brought home. Maybe they were both too broken to fix each other. She wasn’t interested in him anyway. 

He tried, he failed, and now there's this. This thought that they should be moving. This look in her eyes every now and then like maybe she's a lot more invested in this than he's letting himself be.

Neil wasn't a good man; he wasn't the kind of man she should be able to care about, she should be able to love.

And he couldn’t give her that. 

V. 

_“You make me a better surgeon, a better person.”_

“I respect you, as a man.” Claire pushed past him before into his home, leaving the door hanging open as he stood unwavering from the frame. _Wasn’t she supposed to be with Dash?_ He thought, “As a surgeon, a mentor, a teacher. So teach me.” She pulled off her jacket, loosely hanging it on the coat rack.

Neil shook his head halfheartedly, “Claire, what are you doing? Don’t do this.” 

“Teach me.” She insisted. She pulled off her shoes. 

“Claire.” He warned.

“Teach me.” She whispered. She pulled off her shirt. His resident stood in the middle of his house, topless. He’d dreamt of this moment for months, no, years. And all he could do was stare, glued to the front door. This was wrong. He didn’t deserve her. She didn’t need his baggage. 

“We can’t do this, Claire. I...I’m your boss. I’m your teacher. Your mentor.” His eyes pleading; both telling her to stop and to keep going. 

“So, teach me.” Claire took off her lime green sweater. Neil was mesmerized by her every move, drinking in every inch of exposed flesh before he turned away. Was he allowed to look? 

He looked up as Claire’s face began to fall. “Come on, am I really so bad?” Claire’s shoulders sag, defeated. Her face heated as arms wrapped around herself as she felt more self-conscious of the situation she was in. 

"Should we really be doing this?" He asked, thinking about Dash.

Claire turned nervous, wide eyes on him, but they fell toward the floor after a moment in which he couldn’t make his gaze meet hers. Her voice was small but confident as she said, "This is the part where you say we can’t be doing this - you don't have to do the whole speech."

He hated that she read people as well as she did.

They stayed silent for a long minute, and then something seemed to click inside her head because looked at him, hard, the kind of look that forces him to look. "Why? I mean...wasn’t this where it was going?"

Neil doesn't have the answers she's looking for. None of them. He never planned past getting her in bed; he's never done this before, not really. He was never supposed to have feelings for his resident.

"Why keep doing all of this and then just don't bother to give it a chance. At least if it didn't work we'd know that much." There's a plea in her voice but more than that there's an accusation. Her hand reaches for his arm, tentative when she makes contact. "Neil?"

"It won't," he sighed out, finally, his hand coming up to cover hers, and she stood, ripping her hand away.

"Park was right," she started, and it cut. Nothing was ever easy, he should’ve expected this. "Morgan and him both! They were right. And I believed you. I believed in you. I believed you when you said I made you a better person!"

He rested his head in the palm of his hand, no longer looking at her. This would be easier if she left angry, less so if she cried. He didn’t want to see that. He couldn’t. It would break him.

“You're overthinking this. We deserve idiotic happiness too." Claire kissed him, something deeper than the kind of kiss that generally meant their clothes wouldn't be on much longer. This meant something. His head is filled with thoughts of why this isn't going to work, why this was just going to make everything worse, why he should just push her away.

But one thought overrides all the others, the thought that's governed his life pretty much up until her - fuck it, what does he have to lose?

This was always going to be something bigger than them, more than they could control, anyways.

He loved her.

VI.

_“I think I’m in love with my boss.”_

“Oh my god!” Claire exclaimed as Melendez fell to his side, drawing her close to him and nuzzling her shoulder. “Oh my god, that was…you were…wow.”

Melendez chuckled, pressing a kiss to her sweaty skin. “Yeah, I get that a lot. You were pretty wow too, Browne. Didn’t think you had it in you.” He pressed himself up over her again and her eyes glimmered as she looked up at him. “Dash’s an idiot for not seeing what was right in front of him,” he murmured before leaning down to kiss her.

Claire groaned against his lips and gently pushed on his chest. “Can we not talk about Dash right now? I don’t want to think about him. I don’t want to think about any of them.”

Melendez grinned and nodded, leaning down again. “I think I can help with that, Doctor Browne,” he murmured, his lips brushing against hers. She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer as they kissed.

“You want something to eat? I can order something. Never got around to eating before you...showed up at my door.” He murmured against her lips as he heard her stomach grumble.

“Are you complaining? I can leave.” She chided 

“There is no way in hell I’m letting you go, Claire.” He tugged her closer into the bed. She would’ve otherwise found this suffocating, but with him, it was a welcoming embrace. 

Claire laughed. “Yeah ok. Food sounds great. Just get me whatever sounds good to you.” She watched as he jumped out of bed and ordered them two cheeseburgers and an order of fries, before hopping back beneath the covers with her. “Why do you own such a big house, Doctor Melendez?”

He looked down at her incredulously. “Claire. You’re lying in my bed, naked…I think we can drop the formalities. You can just call me Neil.”

“Ok, fine. Why do you own such a large home, Neil?” She emphasized his name. 

Neil shrugged. “Jessica and I were about to get married, it seemed like a good investment. I thought we were going to have a sizable family at least. A little girl or two, a couple of dogs, and of course our families would come and visit us. It just felt like the right thing to do at the time, and now it’s the most home I’ve ever felt, even if it’s alone.” Neil surprised himself with how much he had just shared with Claire. She was just so open and honest with him – it didn’t feel like he needed to be guarded with her.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. “Shit,” Neil whispered, jumping out of bed and frantically grabbing for his sweatpants that were lying on the floor. He walked back into the room with a large brown bag, paper plates, water bottles, and napkins that hung from his lips. He insisted he set it up himself, Claire wasn’t going to complain. 

Claire grinned up at him, her head the only part of her body that was peeking out from the covers. “Oh my god, that smells so good,” she whispered. She emerged from the covers and looked around nervously, feeling strange about eating while she was naked.

Neil seemed to read her mind and grabbed the shirt that she had torn off him and threw it to her. She smiled her thanks and tugged it on over her head. He took a moment to admire how good she looked in his shirt, even as she started to dig into her cheeseburger. He grinned as he watched her take a huge bite. Oh yeah…Claire Browne was the woman for him.

They ate in relative silence, sitting side by side, their shoulders brushing together every so often. Claire was about halfway through her burger when she broke the comfortable silence. “Morgan said that you stared at my ass.”

Neil nearly choked on a french fry. “What?”

“That was another reason that I came by. Morgan said that you liked me and that you’d been staring at my ass…I just…I don’t know. I wanted to see if it was true.”

Melendez chuckled and took another bite of the french fry, chewing and swallowing thoroughly before replying. “Well she might be annoying, but she’s annoyingly observant.”

Claire’s eyes widened. “Really? So you were staring at it?”

Without warning, Neil reached over and grabbed Claire around the waist, dragged her onto his lap. She giggled wildly and straddled him quickly, one hand going to his shoulder to steady herself and the other keeping a hold of the handful of French fries that she was clutching. Neil’s hands went under the shirt to cup her ass, his thumb stroking against the skin gently. Claire grinned and sighed at the soft touch.

“Oh yeah, Claire. I’ve definitely been staring at your ass,” he said, squeezing her flesh as she let out a delighted yelp.

“Neil Melendez! And here I thought this was a platonic friendship!” she teased, pointing at him with a french fry before taking a bite out of it.

He pinched her ass this time and she giggled, waving another french fry in his face until he leaned forward and took a bite out of it. “Oh yeah, like you weren’t the one who just came in here and took off all her clothes. I was keeping my hands to myself, Browne. You’re the one in trouble here.”

“Mmmm, you gonna spank me?” she murmured, shifting her hips suggestively.

His hand stretched out, covering nearly the span of her ass cheek and he rubbed her skin softly. “Yeah, I just might,” he said, his eyes darkening. Claire swallowed and shifted again, feeling his erection growing beneath her. “Would you like that, Claire? Would you like me to spank you?”

Her breath caught and she couldn’t help the little whimper that escaped. Neil smirked. “I…I don’t know. I’ve never done anything like that before.”

“It’s fun,” Neil murmured, trailing his fingers lightly now over her skin. “Gets you really sensitive. Puts a little bit of pain in your pleasure…it can be a lot of fun, Claire.” Without warning, he raised his hand and gave her a quick slap.

Claire gasped in surprise and then almost immediately afterward moaned. Neil did it again, this time his hand landed on her other cheek and Claire groaned, burying her face against his shoulder. He gave her a few more quick swats before pinching at the now pink skin and Claire bit at his shoulder while trying to contain her moans.

Neil chuckled, switching back to gently stroking his fingers across the now sensitized skin of her ass. “See? Lots of fun.”

“Oh my god,” she whispered, straightening against him and managing to look down at him. Her eyes were half open and there was a hazy quality to them. Neil’s hand came up to the side of her neck and she eagerly leaned in to kiss him. Her hips started to rock against his as they made out, until she finally broke away. She leaned her forehead against his and panted, her hot breath hitting his lips. “You are so good at this. Like too good.”

He chuckled and tilted her head slightly until he could kiss her again. His hands dove beneath her shirt and ran up her sides, taking the material with him. There was something so unbelievably sexy about stripping Claire out of his shirt. She raised her arms and they broke the kiss briefly so that he could take off the shirt and toss it to the side again. He grabbed onto both her shoulders and carefully rolled her beneath him, his body pressing against hers completely. Claire moaned as he covered her.

“Neil, the…the food,” she whispered, vaguely pointing to their half-eaten cheeseburgers.

“Mmm, I think I’m craving something else now,” he whispered, a devilish grin on his face as he dropped soft kisses down her body, scooting further and further down the bed.

Claire’s face turned red and when Neil was settled between her legs, she clamped them shut on instinct. Neil’s brow furrowed and he gently stroked the outside of her thigh. “Hey, you ok? Do you not want me to?”

She shrugged. “I don’t…sorry, the last guy, he, um, he did - that - didn’t like it. So I didn’t like it. Just...I’m just a little sensitive” She bit her lip nervously and looked down at him.

Neil shifted slightly and placed a kiss to the top of one thigh and then to the other. He felt her relax slightly under his touch, so he repeated the gesture. “Do you want to try it again? Because it’s something that I really…really like to do,” he whispered, licking his lips as he looked down at curls between her legs.

She relaxed even further and let her thighs part slightly. “You do?”

“Oh yeah,” he whispered, taking advantage of her slightly more relaxed state and urging her thighs further apart so he could wedge himself closer to her. “And I’ve been dying to get a taste of you, Claire.”

“Yeah?” she asked shyly, even as her thighs dropped even further apart, relaxing against the bed. Neil scooted close and wrapped his arms around her thighs, his hands pressing against the inside of her thighs to keep her open.

“Oh yeah,” he whispered, before leaning in and letting his tongue delve into her with one long lick.

Claire immediately stiffened beneath him, moaning as her back arched. Neil just grinned and shifted upwards, pressing a soft kiss to the skin just below her belly button. “Trust me, Claire?”

She nodded immediately and grinned down at him. “Please don’t stop,” she whispered.

“Oh, just try and stop me,” he said, smiling up at her before diving into her again. His tongue was relentless and Claire felt like she couldn’t catch her breath. Everything just felt too good. When he slid a finger inside her and crooked it, stroking her like he was beckoning her to him, she actually screamed his name.

Neil took a break for a moment, pressing a sloppy kiss to her right hip bone. “What about now, Claire? Do you like it better now?”

“I think…I think your tongue might be more talented than your hands. And your hands are-” she gasped as he slid another finger inside her and crooked both of them up this time, hitting her perfectly again. “Oh god, your hands are so good.”

He grinned up at her. “I’m gonna make you come in my mouth, Claire Browne. I’m gonna lick you clean and then I’m going take you again and I’m gonna make you come on my cock.”

She nodded wildly. “Yes! Yes, please! Please, Neil,” she whimpered.

Neil’s head dipped back down, his tongue focusing solely on her clit and his fingers moving in and out of her slick heat. After just a few minutes, Neil was stiff and screaming as she came. Neil kept licking at her until she weakly shoved his head away with a trembling hand.

He moved up her body and placed a soft kiss against her neck, knowing that she might not welcome a kiss right now. She turned towards him and immediately curled against his body, her hand gently stroking his side. “I don’t even have words for how good that was,” she whispered, her lips brushing against his skin.

He chuckled and nuzzled at her shoulder, running his hands all over her body as he gave her a moment to recover.

One of her hands brushed against his hip and then continued down his thigh, before traveling up his inner thigh and then teasingly wrapping around his cock. He groaned against her skin, lightly biting at her shoulder as she started to stroke him. “Grab a condom,” he moaned, bucking against her hand.

She grinned and reached over with her other hand, grabbing a packet from the box sitting on the nightstand. She briefly took her hand away to open the packet and then took a hold of him as she slid the condom on. He groaned again, his face pressed against her neck. “How do you want me, Dr. Melendez?” she whispered teasingly.

“Roll over,” he replied and she grinned, rolling onto her stomach. Neil grabbed a pillow and tapped at her hip, urging her to raise up just a little bit. She did and grinned as she adjusted the pillow beneath her, feeling his eyes on her ass as she wiggled around. “Oh yeah,” he murmured, smacking her ass quickly before settling between her legs.

She giggled. “So you’re definitely an ass man.” She gasped as she felt him enter her in one swift thrust. Burying her face in the pillow, she smothered her moans as he pulled out and pushed back in rapidly, before stilling.

He shifted onto his elbows, so his body was fully covering hers. Claire moaned and pushed up against him, loving the feeling of him engulfing her like this. “I mean, I’m partial to asses, yours in particular. But I like everything about you, Claire Browne.” He started thrusting inside her and Claire’s head dropped again into the pillow, muffling her moans.

Neil reached beneath her and sought out her clit, circling it with gentle fingers as he continued to thrust. “Oh yeah, Claire. That’s it. Come again for me, baby.” Claire groaned her release into the pillow, shuddering as Neil continued to thrust inside her. “Yeah, that’s it. God, you feel good,” he moaned, before speeding up his thrusts as he felt himself go over the edge as well.

He pulled out of her and quickly removed the condom, tying it off and tossing it in the trash can under the nightstand. Flopping onto his back, he sighed and looked over to Claire. He rubbed her head absently and she moaned, and then sort of wiggled her way over to him. Neil couldn’t help but laugh – she looked ridiculous.

“Normally,” she murmured, her face smushed halfway between his shoulder and pillow, “I would be mad at you for laughing at me. But you made me orgasm stupid.”

“Orgasm stupid?”

“Mhm. Like I came so hard and now I’m just dumb. I can’t do anything. I’m just a puddle of Claire. I’m a Claire puddle because I came so hard that my brain stopped working.” He chuckled and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

A few seconds later, her head shot up. “Neil!”

His eyes widened in alarm. “What? What’s wrong?”

“No!! The fries are going to be so cold!”

He couldn’t help but laugh at the genuine concern in her tone. “Is this another orgasm stupid thing?”

She glared at him before laying back down, now more comfortably situated against his chest. “No. This is a very real concern about the state of our fries.”

“Right. Well, there’s a microwave in the kitchen.”

“Hmmm,” she seemed to ponder this for a moment. “Not the same as fresh, but I suppose that’s fine. The sex was worth the fries getting cold.”

“Do you want me to go warm them up for you?”

She shook her head and wrapped an arm around his waist. “Nope. Not yet. Not ready to let you go just yet.”

“And I’d never leave you, Claire Browne.” 


End file.
